As the U.S. Congress stews over the Patriot Act, Alan Rusbridger leaves the Guardian, the paper that brought us NSA Files: Decoded and here is what he says about his work, and even business models for media organizations today.

“Some publishers have decided to erect walls around their digital content and insist on payment. The polar opposites are represented by the Guardian and the Times of London, the latter of which today claims a daily digital audience of around 281,000. In April the Guardian was read by more than 7 million unique browsers a day. On an equal accounting basis, we’re losing (or investing) about the same amount of money. You’ll have to come back in 10 or even 20 years time to find out who judged the future best. But the Guardian – still the eighth-biggest newspaper in the UK – is now vying with the New York Times for the mantle of largest serious English-language newspaper website in the world.”

(via ‘Farewell, readers’: Alan Rusbridger on leaving the Guardian after two decades at the helm | Media | The Guardian)